Inauguration of new lifeboat

Inauguration of new lifeboat (‘Duke of Wellington’) and lifeboat house at Sunderland, 1858. The lifeboat is being pulled into the boathouse by a team of horses, watched by a large crowd. A banner in the lifeboat reads ‘Presented by Miss Burdett Coutts’; Angela Burdett Coutts (1814-1906) was a noted philanthropist and in her lifetime gave £3m to a wide range of causes.